How to stop the Gender from changing on you.

[Addison]

Some advice would be very helpful. At some points of the story my protag is a girl, then suddenly a boy, then girl, boy, girl, boy back and forth so it drives me nuts. I've tried two protags, I've even tried them being twins. Nothin'. Any advice?

 

[MadMadys]

So I'm slightly confused. Are you saying, as part of your story, your character changes their sex and this gets confusing or that you can't decide on what sex to make your protagonist?

 

[Ireth]

I can't say I've ever had this problem. ; Sounds intriguing.

 

[Arhenvir]

A little clarification would be helpful, but since you said you've already considered changing to two protagonists or twins, I read that as having a hard time deciding what sex your protagonist is.

My two cents is that it might be fun to have a character with an androgynous type of personality. Maybe it's a female who grew up with several brothers so she is tomboyish. Or maybe it's a male who grew up without a father figure, and so he is very empathetic and has a knack for finding the right words to help females with their problems.

Also I'm going to make a wild guess and say that perhaps you've come up with obstacles in your plot and you're not sure if your protagonist has reacted to it the way you expect his/her current sex normally would. Is it possible that by that point, for example, your male hero has had a change of heart and looks at the current problem with a little more compassion? Or maybe the female protagonist has been through a lot and takes on a very do-or-die attitude and is not above doing whatever it takes to protect, survive, etc.

With these points to consider, maybe you could decide which of those might be more fun to write (and read) about.

But just on the chance that you might actually have your protagonist switch sexes in the story, I would love to see someone tackle different moods and ways of thinking, and watching how the protagonist makes decisions. Changing sexes is something I've only ever seen done in a few anime series or that one Rob Schneider movie, of which I can't be bothered to look up the name

 

[Feo Takahari]

I suggest first-person narration. Make the reader guess whether your protagonist is male or female!

 

[Anders Ämting]

I have never even heard of anyone having this problem before. o__O

Just theorizing here, but it sounds like it isn't actually important to your story wether your main character is a boy or a girl, which indicates that the identity of the character is not especially important to the story, which probably means there is something very wrong with your narrative, characterization and/or themes.

I guess you should start by deciding exactly who your character is. If you find yourself wanting to change that as you are writing your story, change the story instead.

 

[Steerpike]

I suggest first-person narration. Make the reader guess whether your protagonist is male or female!

See, for example, Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body, where I believe the sex of the protagonist is not stated and could be interpreted either way.

 

[Addison]

Thank you all for the replies and advice.

I gave myself an aid and wrote a scene from a different person's perspective. I described the setting, the other characters and then finally my protagonist. It was close but it was a boy...he just needed a hair cut.

But a question about first person. Yes it's told from a first-hand approach; "I saw him blah blah" "My hands were in fits yadda yadda" Aside from sentences using "I" and "my" do you think it would be confusing, if not out of character, for the first person to describe a setting or such in an almost third-person POV? Then get back into the story with the usual first person tone?

 

[wordwalker]

What is an "almost third-person" view? Swapping I for He/She is the main difference between them-- unless you mean your MC's simulating 3rdP Limited (no thoughts) except for the I's?

 

[Addison]

No it's like.....if someone was to describe a setting themself it would be objective. One person's cozy is another person's uncomfortable. That said, what if to sort of set the scene the character kind of takes a step back and looks around in a non objective way? The tone would be off but it would still be a first-person story. Does that make sense at all?